Facebook page.My name is Deb. I currently reside in North Dakota with my husband where we farm. We moved here from Maryland 6 years ago. I am a registered nurse and teach nursing students. I have always had GSD's, my last boy died a month ago at age 13. I was a canine search specalist for Virginia Task Force-1 and also did wilderness search and cadaver work with my dogs when we lived in MD. I loved search and miss that so much. The wide variety of training that is required is challenging and rewarding.
I adopted my first Dutch Shepherd 2 weeks ago. Her name is Tess and is approx. 2 years old, but acts much younger at times. I am in love!! She was rescued by Midwest Animal Rescue from a shelter near Des Moines, IA. Nothing is known about her background. She is not a runner, so who knows. She is on the small side, 54 lbs, but is in good shape.She bonded to me immediately. She is very quick to learn, observant and protective. At this point her food drive is the strongest drive, but am working on her prey/play drive and am seeing good development. It does not look like she has been encourged to play in the past. She loves the 2 ball game, and we now have a good "out". I've been using the clicker to shape behaviors and now have a down, sit, wait, come, and out. VERY quick to learn and retain. She has no dog or cat aggression. Will eye up the cats, but doesn't chase. She does like to make the chickens jump. The only problem I have had is a bit of what I think is fear aggression towards my husband. She is fine with him outside, but in the house will growl when he comes downstairs and when he moves from the kitchen to the living room, iffy sometimes when he comes in the front door. She bit him once the third day. Thank goodness he loves dogs, likes her and is willing to work with me on this. I think I am getting it under control as there are fewer and fewer times of this behavior as the days go by. She responds to "leave it" when she is blocking his walking and comes quickly to me. She continues to watch him very closely. I spoke with her foster dad when this first happened- they had none of this behavior. But she had gone to an adoptive home a week before I got her, it lasted 2 days. When he investigated for me, he got a different story than originally told and the behavior described is very similar to what I see. I am certainly open to thoughts and suggestions.
My plans for Tess are to train her for search and rescue. I miss being involved and there are very few canine resources here in our remote area. We've started some light agility, play and obedience. I think she will be very good candidate. Now to find some good decoys!
I am very strongly considering getting another DS. The more I work with her and the more I research the breed, I want another. We have always been a multidog household and I love to train.
'm so happy to have found this forum and look forward to "talking" with you all.
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